April 16, 2023
Germany’s Nuclear Nous versus the UK’s Nuclear Nutters
I’m celebrating today – for the simple reason that Germany closed down its three remaining nuclear reactors on Saturday 15th April. I’ve followed the nuclear debate in Germany…
July 7, 2022
Sizewell C: Just the Latest Nuclear Scam
Whatever chaos unfolds between today (Thursday) and tomorrow, Boris Johnson is apparently still planning to confirm his Government’s commitment to a new nuclear power station at…
October 26, 2021
Truth and Fantasy in Our Net Zero World
In this short-lived breathing space between last week's Net Zero barrage and next week's CoP26 frenzy, it seems timely to reflect on how it all stacks up so far. After months of…
June 23, 2021
USA and China Join Battle for Net Zero Gold Rush
Listen out: ‘The American Jobs Plan will unify and mobilise the country to meet the two great challenges of our time: the climate crisis and the ambitions of an autocratic……
May 7, 2021
Energy Policymaking in the UK: Ill-Informed and Incoherent
In March 2012, four former Directors of Friends of the Earth (myself, Tom Burke, Charles Secrett and Tony Juniper) wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron to warn him that the…
May 4, 2021
The Aotearoa Circle: An Initiative for Our Times
Back in 2016, I sat down in Auckland with a very good friend of mine, Rob Fenwick, to share our frustrations at the difficulty of getting New Zealanders to understand the critical…
February 2, 2021
2021: Make or Break For The UK’s Climate Strategy – instalment (C)
Both the Ten Point Plan and the Energy White Paper wax lyrical about the potential for CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage), using pretty much the same kind of language…
January 31, 2021
2021: Make Or Break For The UK’s Climate Strategy – instalment (B)
If renewables is the UK’s strongest low-carbon suit, energy efficiency in the built environment is by far the weakest. It’s absolutely critical that the UK puts efficiency at the…
January 28, 2021
2021: Make or break for the UK’s climate strategy
For all sorts of reasons, UK politicians do at last seem to have grasped that we are in the midst of an out-and-out Climate Emergency. Despite people’s worst fears that the whole…
July 31, 2020
Do you want the good news? Or the bad?
Six months into the pandemic, it’s anybody’s guess whether: 1. Governments are effectively using their massive recovery programmes to address the Climate and Biodiversity…